Now this is one to ponder. This year, the Nobel Peace Prize went to Barack Obama, president of the United States. The prize has been given to both politicians and non-politicians alike, and Keith Lofstrom thinks its time to hand over the Peace Prize to a non-politician once more: Linus Torvalds.

Bush and Putin had embarked on a course to restart the Cold War. Obama changed policy and averted that. Averting a Cold War 2.0 is more than enough to deserve the prize, as far as I'm concerned.

In this interview, Geir Lundestad, Secretary of the Nobel Committee, explains why Obama was selected for the Peace Prize, the summation of which is "changing the international climate". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooqkvd8JPfU

Incidentally, it's common for people to win the Peace Prize for effort rather than concrete accomplshment (Desmond Tutu won yet apartheid didn't end until 10 years later).

Finally, the scenario where Obama starts a war or whatever, and makes the Nobel committee look foolish, the committee already said they don't care. "Obama need not be worried that he'll do something and the Nobel committee denounces him. We always stand by our laureates."

As for "tech guys", I'd argue that Bill Gates has accomplished more in humanitarian activities than any other tech person, but I digress...